RFC: extra kernel module install locations

Matthias Saou thias at spam.spam.spam.spam.spam.spam.spam.egg.and.spam.freshrpms.net
Mon Sep 13 07:40:47 UTC 2004


Ville Skyttä wrote :

> 0) Somewhere directly below /lib/modules/$uname, in a per-package 
>    subdir.
> 1) A suitable location below /lib/modules/$uname/kernel.
> 2) /lib/modules/$uname/updates, mirroring the dir structure from
>    /lib/modules/$uname/kernel as applicable.
> 3) Same as 2), but s/updates/$something_else_than_updates/.
> 4) As long as it Just Works(tm), does not matter.
> 5) Insert your favourite here.
> 
[...]
> 
> My .02___ of the above:
> 
> 0) Yuck, gets messy.
> 1) IMO shouldn't use "kernel" for stuff that is not included in kernel
>    distributed by the kernel vendor.
> 2) My #1 pick as of now, maybe, depending on 3) below.
> 3) Is this better or worse than 2)?  Dunno.
>    Is "updates" the only dir that Just Works in earlier distro versions?
>    Is using "updates" more or less likely to cause conflicts
>    than "extra" or something else?  Is it a bad thing to put all these
>    extra modules to "updates", when the vast majority of them are not
>    updates per se, but "new" modules instead (in the sense that they're
>    not included in the vendor's kernel)?
> 4) I would feel more comfortable with some kind of documented guidelines
>    or best practices, for consistency.
> 
> Comments?

I definitely wouldn't mind going for 2) or 3). Having the sub-dir called
something else than "updates" for kernel modules that are already existing
in the original "kernel" module tree could lead to confusion, no? Also, the
most important point I think is to be sure that the location where the
separately packaged modules are installed gets precedence over the original
"kernel" module tree, in order to make sure we can package more recent
versions of modules already shipped with the kernel and have those loaded
instead of the default ones. I'd go for "updates".

BTW, what I do currently is 1) but also 2) ("updates" without mirroring the
structure, though) for modules already shipped with the kernel (pwc/pwcx
for instance).

Matthias

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